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Forum:"A Few Seconds"
In my continuing quest to understand the math behind the game, I'm finding it infuriating how many of the abilities in the game have non-descript modifiers like "a few seconds." For example, as a siren player, there are many abilities that fall into this category, like Girl Power: "Killing an enemy causes your Shield to quickly regenerate for a few seconds...." It goes on to specify how much shield regeneration per second, but for how long? Just within Lilith's skills, I can point the finger at the following skills: Striking, Dramatic Entrance, Girl Power, Mind Games, Radiance, Venom, Intuition, Phoenix, Silent Resolve, and Enforcer. That's 10 out of 21! What exactly does "daze" do, numerically? What is my chance to corrode enemies with venom? (At least, is it high or low?) What does radiance's +1 shock damage mean -- +1 to what? And WTH is "a few seconds"?? I doubt Lilith is alone. I don't play the other classes (yet), but at a glance I saw 7 of Mordecai's skills that fit a similar pattern and I bet I could find just as many for Roland and Brick. I realize this may sound like a rant, but really it's a plea for information. Diablo 2 wasn't always great about finding info about an ability within the game, but I could go to a leading site and find that information there. It isn't here. I want it to be. I'm willing to do the writing, but I don't have the info. I can do extensive testing if I feel so motivated, but I'm willing to bet some of you already know what "a few seconds" means. I found out on a talk page that one of those skills (Silent Resolve) is a 7 second duration, but what about the others? Anyone know? P.S. Should this kind of thread be in Help Desk rather than Watercooler? It seems like the Help Desk is for questions about getting the game to function, not game mechanics. Everyone's asking about how to get DLC installed and stuff like that. Azuarc 21:30, January 7, 2010 (UTC) ---- It seems like there's a constant duration for the kill-aura abilities. I forget the exact amount, but you can time it with a stopwatch by timing how long the ability icon is on the screen after a kill. I may look into this tonight. --Volkai 22:45, January 7, 2010 (UTC) ---- For anyone interested, I performed a few rough tests and found the aforementioned 'kill-aura' abilities to last *approximately* SEVEN (7) seconds. It seems somewhat plausible that "A few seconds" in this case means 7 +/- 0.2 seconds, especially given that I wasn't getting very nearly 7 every time. Additionally, I know for a fact that (at least for Roland) kill-aura abilities will all activate and deactivate simultaneously. -Snoodude- 04:55, Jan. 24 2010 (PST) : I can cofirm this for Juggernaut, Revenge and Master Blaster for Brick. Desertfighter777 15:19, January 24, 2010 (UTC) ::The 7 seconds, or that they deactivate together? To snoodude, awesome. When I created this thread, the only ability on my character that used this skill didn't give me an icon (or I've just never noticed it) -- Silent Resolve. Since fooling around with respecs, I've noticed other skills do have these icons, and so I'm no longer confused what they're referring to. But silly me, I haven't bothered to time them! Think I'mma go spec into Girl Power, Phoenix, Intuition, and Enforcer, and see what happens. -- Azuarc :: :: They deactivate together, should have mentioned it. I also think that Silent Resolve doesn't display an icon is because it's not an on-kill effect. Similarly, Brick won't ever get an icon for Blood Sport even though it's a temporary boost. -- Desertfighter777 07:56, January 25, 2010 (UTC) ---- They give the exact numbers underneath that. The Flying Fenrakk 01:01, January 25, 2010 (UTC) : Please provide a picture, link, screenshot, or other source to support your statement. Specifically, I am greatly interested in anything that shows the "exact numbers" of "a few seconds". Or please, anyone... I would greatly enjoy and would be genuinely grateful at seeing a quantification of "a few seconds". --Smurphys7 02:15, February 7, 2010 (UTC) :: I'll take a screenshot next time I play. In the bottom-right of the description box, it gives exact numbers; however, the actual description only says "A few second". ::For example, look at the Mordecai Skill Tree thing on the website: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/mordecai/#10000000000000000000000 ::Hover over the Riotous Remedy. It says "Killing an enemy gives you chaotic health regeneration for a few seconds", and below it, it gives exact numbers. :::However, several skills there do not show exact numbers, such as Relentless, Ransack, and Killer. -- 02:52, February 8, 2010 (UTC) ::::Oh, I see what they're referring to. I was looking at it another way. I'll check the actual trees next time I play, though I doubt they'll give any more information than the skill tree calculator. The Flying Fenrakk 03:36, February 8, 2010 (UTC) Excellent. I randomly checked a few skills and both merely showed "a few seconds" and had no information in the lower window. I didn't thoroughly check them all and notice some did describe 7 seconds. With a person mentioning they tested 7 seconds on several skills, and several other skills showing as 7 seconds on the page you linked to I'll assume any skills I'm not familiar with last 7 seconds when they say "a few seconds". --Smurph "In my continuing quest to understand the math behind the game, I'm finding it infuriating ..." : Learning to stop trying to understand that which cannot be understood is a high achievement. Those who cannot will be destroyed upon the Lathe of Heaven. ;) MeMadeIt 07:44, February 8, 2010 (UTC) :: Yeah, no kidding. However, comparing the mysteries of the Divine with the lack of documentation in a video game is a bit thin. By all accounts, there are a lot of things in the game that could be laid a little more bare for those who want to see the extra infoz...even if it were just a post on the GearBox forums. The mechanics on elemental weapons, for example, is utterly bewildering. (Revolvers and snipers can get full effect, rockets always do, and the other weapons never do??) :: However, responding to Smurph and his predecessor, it is true that the website does quote the 7 seconds...for Riotous Remedy. None of the other skills like that for ANY of the classes do so. The only other skill that even mentions "7 seconds" is Roland's Supply Drop, which is not a duration effect. Why is RR alone in this regard? It's almost as if they made it a point to try to simplify the game text for non-number crunchers by replacing their 7 second standard with the phrase "a few seconds" and they happened to miss that one. --Azuarc 14:30, February 8, 2010 (UTC) :::Just wrote a paragraph of bee-yow-tiful prose about elemental damage and bloody IE6 fell over when MeMadeIt edited the page at the same time. So look Elemental Damage instead. RE: 7 seconds, don't get why they didn't just stipulate "7 seconds" instead of "several seconds".. Why would you make us sit in front of our computers with stopwatches Gearbox, WHY!!? IMonkoii 07:37, April 23, 2010 (UTC) Shame there isn't a config file setting or something where you up the time from 7000 to 30000 or something silly! I can vouch for the hunter class, telling you that all kill skills last almost exactly 7 seconds, and from the sound of it i assume that all of the classes kill skills work the same way. I believe you are exactly right, Azuarc. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not that they left the one reference to "7 seconds", but it appears to be a solid connection between individual experience and game script. Kinnaeus 06:22, April 23, 2010 (UTC) Another consideration for "7 seconds" is that that's the interval for getting the 25-Kills-in-a-Row achievement - you must get them with no more than 7 seconds between kills. It seems that they are using a generic 7-second timer software routine. -- MeMadeIt 07:22, April 23, 2010 (UTC)